Spurs Brazil
02-04-2012, 06:42 AM
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-120203-04/nba-all-star-reserve-picks
By Marc Stein
Duncan has never loved postgame media briefings, but he finds that topic particularly annoying these days. He's not about to expend energy in February providing updates on his future when just getting through this lockout-shortened season is demanding enough.
It's a topic that's surely going to keep coming up, with Duncan's 36th birthday looming on April 25 and modest averages of 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game in the final year of his contract. Yet it's clear that Duncan isn't going chime in until he has to, preferring to focus on a schedule he finds to be far more of a grind than the lockout-shortened season in 1999 that ended with the first of Duncan's four championships.
That's not because he finds 66 games in 123 days to be so much more withering than 50 games in 90 regular-season days in '99. Duncan arrived at that conclusion purely because of his age.
"This does not feel like '99," Duncan said. "In '99, I was a deer. I would just run all day. This is a couple years after that."
Duncan's most expansive comments on the subject, offered to the San Antonio Express-News at the start of training camp, would appear to be promising if you're rooting for TD to play on. "I haven't gotten to that bridge yet," Duncan said in December. "I don't even see that bridge yet. When I get there, I'll cross it."
And longtime teammate Manu Ginobili, for what it's worth, told the paper that "I really don't believe it's going to be [Duncan's] last season."
I hope not. I'll be crushed when he stops playing. I'll even miss the short interview answers. I've had the privilege of covering most of Duncan's playoff career from fairly close proximity and thus struggle to imagine life in the wild, wild Western Conference without him, even if it's been four years since San Antonio's last title, which is the longest stretch of Duncan's 14-year career without a ring.
There are still nights, after all, when vintage Timmy reappears, so dismiss the Spurs and their reconstituted supporting cast at your peril ... provided that Ginobili makes a full recovery from the broken hand that sidelined him just five games in. Wednesday was one of those nights -- albeit just the third time all season that Duncan was San Antonio's top scorer -- as he rumbled for 25 points in a home win over red-hot Houston.
By Marc Stein
Duncan has never loved postgame media briefings, but he finds that topic particularly annoying these days. He's not about to expend energy in February providing updates on his future when just getting through this lockout-shortened season is demanding enough.
It's a topic that's surely going to keep coming up, with Duncan's 36th birthday looming on April 25 and modest averages of 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game in the final year of his contract. Yet it's clear that Duncan isn't going chime in until he has to, preferring to focus on a schedule he finds to be far more of a grind than the lockout-shortened season in 1999 that ended with the first of Duncan's four championships.
That's not because he finds 66 games in 123 days to be so much more withering than 50 games in 90 regular-season days in '99. Duncan arrived at that conclusion purely because of his age.
"This does not feel like '99," Duncan said. "In '99, I was a deer. I would just run all day. This is a couple years after that."
Duncan's most expansive comments on the subject, offered to the San Antonio Express-News at the start of training camp, would appear to be promising if you're rooting for TD to play on. "I haven't gotten to that bridge yet," Duncan said in December. "I don't even see that bridge yet. When I get there, I'll cross it."
And longtime teammate Manu Ginobili, for what it's worth, told the paper that "I really don't believe it's going to be [Duncan's] last season."
I hope not. I'll be crushed when he stops playing. I'll even miss the short interview answers. I've had the privilege of covering most of Duncan's playoff career from fairly close proximity and thus struggle to imagine life in the wild, wild Western Conference without him, even if it's been four years since San Antonio's last title, which is the longest stretch of Duncan's 14-year career without a ring.
There are still nights, after all, when vintage Timmy reappears, so dismiss the Spurs and their reconstituted supporting cast at your peril ... provided that Ginobili makes a full recovery from the broken hand that sidelined him just five games in. Wednesday was one of those nights -- albeit just the third time all season that Duncan was San Antonio's top scorer -- as he rumbled for 25 points in a home win over red-hot Houston.